Sales Planning and Operations Report: Strategies for New-look Company

This report delves into sales planning and operations, providing a comprehensive analysis of various strategies and techniques. It begins by exploring the use of social media tools and their benefits, as well as the limitations. The report then examines the effectiveness of personal selling, outlining its advantages and potential pitfalls, while also considering the types of businesses most affected. The analysis further investigates qualitative and quantitative forecasting methods, comparing their benefits and shortcomings, and discussing their practical applications. Essential skills and attributes for sales personnel are identified, alongside a discussion of recruitment, selection, and employee retention strategies, including specific approaches to improve retention rates. Finally, the report examines trade fair participation as a sales strategy, including a detailed plan for a trade fair event. The report uses the example of the company New-look to illustrate these concepts.

Sales Planning
and
Operations

Table of Contents
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
M1...............................................................................................................................................1
1. Social media tools ..................................................................................................................1
2. Benefits...................................................................................................................................1
3. Limitations..............................................................................................................................1
D1................................................................................................................................................2
1. Personal selling.......................................................................................................................2
2. Potential pitfalls .....................................................................................................................2
3. Businesses types .....................................................................................................................2
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................3
M2...............................................................................................................................................3
1. Qualitative and quantitative ...................................................................................................3
2. Benefits and short-falls...........................................................................................................3
3. Application..............................................................................................................................3
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................4
M3 ..............................................................................................................................................4
1. Specific skills .........................................................................................................................4
2. Attributes ................................................................................................................................4
D2................................................................................................................................................4
1. Recruitment and selection .....................................................................................................4
2. Employee retention.................................................................................................................5
3. Specific ways .........................................................................................................................5
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................6
D3................................................................................................................................................6
1. Trade ......................................................................................................................................6
2. Plan ........................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

TASK 1
M1
1. Social media tools
New-look uses various types of social media tools that could be used to increase sales.
Social media tools are such as: Social networking sites- With the help of social networking sites, people can connect
with each other via using internet facility. The famous social media sites are such as
Facebook and Twitter etc. Electronic mail- Cited firm could use this tool such as Gmail or Yahoo for enhancing its
sales through which firm can promote their products (Cadle, 2010).
 Mobile application- New-look could use their firm's own mobile application for the
purpose of increasing sales.
2. Benefits
The benefits are defined below:
 New-look's sales manager could reach to several customers through using social media
tools as compare to face-to-face selling because through face-to-face selling, firm could
connect with the limited number of customers.
 Cited firm's sales manager could easily target the company's customers in more effective
way as information about all the company's products is easily available on such sites
which helps to gain attention of many customers.
 It helps to attract new customers towards the product (Comer, 2014).
 At free or low cost, company can expand their customer size but in personal selling,
company has to pay prices to sales persons and for their transport cost.
3. Limitations
 If, company is not maintaining their official web page or blog, then it gives negative
impact on the customer’s perception.
 Wrong and bad branding strategy of company could doom the cited firm because if
content and message are not relevant and connected then it would not be able to attract
customers towards the company's product (The Disadvantages to Social Media
Marketing, 2011).
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 To maintain company's official page on social media sites, New-look has to designate
human resources to timely update the page and in order to post the relevant content,
whole process would consume more time.
D1
1. Personal selling
According to Erevelles, personal selling is more beneficial in marketing process because
sales persons could influence customers by expressing the usage benefits of products. The author
stated that personal selling tool has a superior impact on customers as compare to any other
marketing tools (Erevelles and Fukawa, 2013). New-look's sales persons could also receive
feedback from the target customers. However, in the contrast, Deeter-Schmelz stated that
personal selling is an expensive method of promoting the firm's product. The author critiqued
that in personal selling, company's image and fortune are completely depended on the sales
persons (Deeter-Schmelz, 2014).
2. Potential pitfalls
 In online selling, planning, designing, maintaining and securing the official web page are
very expensive for the companies.
 To run business effectively, companies have to focus on the legal laws of e-commerce
(The Benefits and Challenges of Online Selling, 2013).
 Online selling helps companies to attract large number of customers, so, companies have
to timely deliver the products to meet the demands of customers.
 Companies have to securely deliver products to the customers without any damage while
transporting products, so, shipping of products is also a big challenge for the company.
3. Businesses types
By the elimination of personal selling, there are few businesses which would be affected
mostly by this. In this context, businesses such as auto motive and insurance fields etc. are
mostly affected. In the auto motive field, sales representative attends individual customers,
represents them products, and solves their queries as well as doubts about company's product.
Same happens in insurance field in which manager describes insurance policy to individual
customer and also defines the benefits of insurance to the same. With the help of personal
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selling, both these businesses can attend individual customers effectively and try to meet their
demands (Meyr, 2015).
TASK 2
M2
1. Qualitative and quantitative
The techniques of both approaches are defined below:
Qualitative:-
Delphi technique- In this technique, a group is designed in which different experts are
individually questioned to express their perception about the future events of sales. Further,
answers are summarized and considered.
Sales force polling- Companies use sales people as a forecast source because they have contact
with customers. This method helps to develop the future forecast.
Quantitative:-
Company uses this approach to forecast about future sales and it is based on few techniques like
Trend analysis. In this, all the past information are collected and future forecast is developed.
2. Benefits and short-falls
Delphi method- This technique is quite effective because experts are not influenced by each
other. Disadvantage of this techniques is that it continues until the consensus is reached in an
effective manner (Qualitative Forecasting Methods and Techniques, 2009).
Sales force planning- This is simple to use and understand because it uses the specialized
knowledge. If, salespeople's prediction are overly pessimistic or optimistic then it could affect
the result of future forecast.
Trend analysis- With the help of past and verifiable data, effective future forecast would be
developed. However, if changes occur in environment which could affect the current trend, so,
fast data would not be helpful to forecast about changes.
3. Application
With the help of both qualitative and quantitative approaches, New-look could effectively
manage its sales by developing the future forecast. For this, cited firm could use the techniques
like trend analysis, Delphi method and sales force planning. Delphi method helps to reach the
consensus in more effective manner with the help of experts. Further, with the help of sales force
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planning, New-look uses sales people as a forecast source. Sales people's predictions help to
develop future forecast. Further, trend analysis method uses the past records. In this regard, cited
firm can use the large number of past historical records to develop effective future forecast.
TASK 3
M3
1. Specific skills
There are few essential skills which are required in sales persons to attract more
customers. These specific skills are as follows:
 Presentation skills- With the help of presentation skills, sales person would be able to
attract many customers at the time of presenting the company's product. This skill would
help to convince the customers and also increases awareness about product's benefits
among the customers (Hübner, 2013).
 Communication skills- Sales person could easily and effectively interact with the
customers with the help of effective communication skills. At the time of interaction,
they can understand the demand of customers and easily handle the queries of them.
2. Attributes
The common attributes between sales person and mobile sales person are as follows:
Product awareness- Both sales persons and mobile sales persons are complementary aware
about the company's product and both try to increase awareness about company's product in
customers. Both have required information about company and its products so, they could easily
handle the customer’s queries (Wagner, 2015).
Influence power- Sales person and mobile sales persons of New-look have high influencing
power which helps them to influence many customers towards the products in a positive manner.
D2
1. Recruitment and selection
In the recruitment and selection procedure of Virgin Atlantic, initially they invite the
applicants and select the desired candidates who have the ability to fulfill the firm's requirement.
Among the selected candidates, telephonic interview takes places and further, the pass candidates
face the next interview. Needs and demands of them are also considered by the company and
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after final selection, all the facilities are provided to them like transport and accommodation etc
This helps to improve satisfaction level among the selected persons (Virgin Atlantic’s HR in
Practice: high-flying management, 2007). In initial stage, information related to all the norms
and policies is provided to them and they are also aware about the working culture which helps
them to understand the working procedure in more effective way.
2. Employee retention
Selection and recruitment procedure also helps to improve the level of employee
retention in Virgin Atlantic. In the selection process, training and motivation workshops are
arranged by the cited firm to increase awareness among selected persons about the working
culture and process. In the training programs, selected people are aware about both the technical
and practical knowledge. Proper training programs help them to aware and friendly about their
work. Further, with the high motivation, they influence to work hard in order to increase their
performance. All these steps help to improve the employee retention.
3. Specific ways
To increase and improve the employee retention, Virgin Atlantic uses various ways
which are as follows:
Leadership development programs- With the help of this programs, cited firm wants to develop
effective and strong team of managers. Team managers would be able to take the advantage of
new opportunities at a very short notice time period. In this regard, coaching is also provided to
each individual employee (Virgin Atlantic Airlines: employee motivation, leadership and
organisational culture, 2012).
Motivational programs- Motivation programs are based on need, process and learning. In the
Virgin Atlantic, communication and employee involvement are the powerful motivational tools.
Organizational culture- Cited firm adopts innovative and creative approaches to deal with the
different tendencies and to avoid uncertainty in the culture.
TASK 4
D3
1. Trade
In European trade fair “Next Season”, New-look could be able to attract more customers
towards the product. This is an international fair for shoes, clothing and accessories in which
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cited firm will be able to increase awareness about all its products in front of customers. All
domestic and international people would attend the fair, so, cited firm would be able to attract
new and international customers which will help to increase the firm's productivity and sales.
2. Plan
Activity Objective
Identification of sponsor To gather the capital.
Preparation of catalogs To give information about event like place,
product and time.
Promotional tool To give awareness among customers about
fair.
Selection of product Selection of product which are exhibited in the
fair.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Erevelles, S. and Fukawa, N., 2013. The role of affect in personal selling and sales management.
Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management. 33(1). pp.7-24.
Cadle, J., Paul, D. and Turner, P., 2010. “Business Analysis Techniques: 72 Essential Tools for
Success”. BCS.
Deeter-Schmelz, D.R., 2014. Personal Selling and Sales Management Abstracts. Journal of
Personal Selling & Sales Management. 34(4). pp.318-330.
Comer, L.B. and et.al., 2014. A New Approach for Teaching Customer Personality Types in the
Personal Selling Course. Journal of Higher Education Theory and Practice. 14(2). pp.11.
Meyr, H., Wagner, M. and Rohde, J., 2015. Structure of advanced planning systems. In Supply
chain management and advanced planning. pp. 99-106. Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
Hübner, A.H., Kuhn, H. and Sternbeck, M.G., 2013. Demand and supply chain planning in
grocery retail: an operations planning framework. International Journal of Retail & Distribution
Management. 41(7). pp.512-530.
Online
The Benefits and Challenges of Online Selling, 2013. [Online]. Available through:
<http://www.intenseblog.com/internet-marketing/benefits-challenges-online-selling.html>.
[Accessed on 4th February 2016].
The Disadvantages to Social Media Marketing, 2011. [Online]. Available through:
<http://automatedbuildings.com/news/sep11/columns/110826030404mandrusiak.html>.
[Accessed on 4th February 2016].
Qualitative Forecasting Methods and Techniques, 2009. [Online]. Available through:
<http://accounting-financial-tax.com/2009/04/qualitative-forecasting-methods-and-techniques/>.
[Accessed on 4th February 2016].
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Virgin Atlantic Airlines: employee motivation, leadership and organisational culture, 2012.
[Online]. Available through: <http://research-methodology.net/virgin-atlantic-airlines-employee-
motivation-leadership-and-organisational-culture/>. [Accessed on 4th February 2016].
Virgin Atlantic’s HR in Practice: high-flying management, 2007. [Online]. Available through:
<http://www.personneltoday.com/hr/virgin-atlantics-hr-in-practice-high-flying-management/>.
[Accessed on 4th February 2016].
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